The present invention relates to a bill handling machine that handles bills, and more particularly to an Automated Teller Machine (hereinafter called an ATM) installed in financial institutions such as a bank to execute processing such as deposit, payment, and money transfer in response to a customer's request with a card, receipt paper, and bills as the medium, and to a Bill Recycle Module (hereinafter called a BRM) included in an ATM to recycle deposited bills for withdrawal.
An ATM is required to handle bills stored under various conditions of a country, a region, or a financial institution where it is used. For example, JP-A-2000-20783 discloses a technology for use on an ATM or a BRM for ensuring consistency between bill storage boxes, such as a deposit-only box, a withdrawal-only box, and a recycling box, by providing boxes of uniform size to allow those boxes to be used in any combination and to be added or removed according to the condition.
According to the technology disclosed in JPA-2000-20783, one of the following two may be selected; an ATM or a BRM has deposit-only boxes and withdrawal-only boxes separately, and an ATM or a BRM has recycling box that are used as both deposit-only boxes and withdrawal-only boxes. The former is selected in a case where, for reasons of bill distribution conditions, bill recycling involves a risk of counterfeit bills or a jam condition caused by broken bills. The latter is selected in a case where there is a strong need for making use of cash, such as bills, stored in an ATM or a BRM to save labor in exchanging boxes when a box is short of, or filled with, bills. In addition to a regional reason, boxes may be added or removed depending upon the deposit/withdrawal transaction operation status. For example, although bills are recycled on week days, it is also possible to add withdrawal-only boxes on days or during time zones, such as holidays or a pay day or during a lunch hour, when the withdrawal transaction is supposed to be done more frequently than the deposit transaction.